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Shakespeare Competition at Wingate

Wingate, NC –Macbeth, Hamlet and Othello will come alive at Wingate University’s Annual Shakespeare Competition scheduled for Feb.16. Each year Wingate University, in association with the English-Speaking Union of the United States, invites middle and high school students from surrounding schools to the campus to compete in the contest.

For the preliminary round, students recite a sonnet and a portion of a Shakespeare play before a faculty/staff judge and a student judge. Winners in the preliminary round then go on to compete in the final round of the contest at the George A. Batte, Jr. Fine Arts Center.

More than 300 students usually participate in this popular event that runs from 9:15 a.m. until 2 p.m. the day of the contest. All participants receive a certificate. Plaques will be awarded to winners in each division. Lunch is included with the entry fee ($6 for Union County middle and high school students and CMS middle school students; $9 for CMS high school students, and other students outside Union County). Wingate University tuition scholarships will be given to first through fifth place winners in the high school division. The top reciter in high school division (9th grade through 12thgrade) receives all-expense-paid opportunity to compete in the National Shakespeare Competition in New York City.

This project is supported by the Union County Community Arts Council Arts in the Schools Grants and Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools.

Founded in 1896, Wingate University is a private four-year co-educational institution of 2,159 students offering active learning opportunities through personalized instruction, world travel, career discovery, and community service.

Wingate offers 36 undergraduate majors in arts and sciences, business, communication, education, fine arts, music, and sports sciences. It also offers graduate degrees in business, education, physician assistant studies and sports administration. In addition, the school awards the doctor of pharmacy and the doctor of education degrees.

Bulldog student-athletes compete in 19 NCAA Division II sports. Wingate University has won the South Atlantic Conference Echols Athletic Excellence Award for the past three years. www.wingate.edu-end-